Worcestershire branches of Santander safe from closure

Worcestershire branches of Santander safe from closure

A sign for a branch of Santander in central London, as the high street bank said the buy-to-let rush ahead of this month's stamp duty increase helped profits rise 13\% as it enjoyed a surge in mortgage lending..

BRANCHES of Santander across Worcestershire will remain open despite the bank announcing it would close down 140 branches across the country.

Yesterday it was announced that Santander branches nationwide would be closed due to changes in customer banking habits, with the number of transactions carried out via Santander branches falling by 23% over the past three years, while transactions via digital channels have grown by 99% over the same period.

Branches in Worcester, Malvern, Evesham and Pershore were not on the list of branches to be closed.

Susan Allen, head of retail and business banking, said: "The way our customers are choosing to bank with us has changed dramatically in recent years, with more and more customers using online and mobile channels. As a result, we have had to take some very difficult decisions over our less visited branches, and those where we have other branches in close proximity.

"We will support customers of closing branches to find alternative ways to bank with us that best suit their individual needs. We are also working alongside our unions to support colleagues through these changes and to find alternative roles for those impacted wherever possible.

"We continue to believe that branches have a vital role to play and we will be refurbishing 100 of our branches over the next two years. We are confident that following these changes we will have the right branch network to serve our customers’ changing needs, and we expect the size of our network to remain stable for the foreseeable future."

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